Business respect for human rights

The guiding principles (GPs) for implementation of the ‘Protect, respect and remedy’ framework presented by the United Nations Special Representative for Business and Human Rights John Ruggie were accepted by the Human Rights Council in June 2011. Although the stringency of the GPs may be criticized, the second pillar of the framework and GPs set an authoritative standard for business worldwide to respect human rights, one that many businesses worldwide not yet comply with. The effectiveness and impact of the framework and GPs in avoiding business related human rights abuses depends on the uptake by companies, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs). Only by implementing the framework and the GPs can they become of real value for future victims of business related human rights abuse. CSOs have an important role to play in inducing companies to implement the GPs in an ambitious and effective manner. SOMO, CEDHA and Cividep have started a collaboration to assist CSOs in performing this role.

Purpose

The objective and purpose of the SOMO-CEDHA-Cividep project is to develop a guide for CSOs as a tool to use the GPs in their research and advocacy towards companies and governments. By using the GPs in company research and advocacy, CSOs can play an indispensable role in confronting companies with their responsibility to respect human rights and ensuring they are motivated to comply with their corporate responsibility to respect human rights.The project is implemented in a bilingual manner – Spanish and English – and aims to cover Europe, Latin-America and Asia through the networks of the collaborating partners.

Process

The partners have designed a collaborative and participative process to develop the guide. In the first half of 2012 the three organizations have developed a draft guide. During Rio+20, the project focused on outreach to the CSO target group by means of disseminating the GPs, networking, building capacity and testing and improving the draft guide by means of a participatory workshop with CSOs as an independent side event from Rio+20. 

After making some improvements based on the workshop, a review amongst experts and practitioners from different stakeholder groups will take place during the summer 2012. At the same time, the guide will be piloted on two company cases, one from India and one from Argentina. Based on feedback from the review and the pilots, the guide will be finalized in the second part of 2012, with the aim of a launch by the end of the year.